抄録
Magnetic recording has been the dominant technology for information storage since the invention of the computer. The areal density has grown at a compound growth rate of approximately 30 % per year for the last 40 years. However, since the introduction of the magnetoresistive thin film head by IBM in 1991, the growth rate has increased to about 60 % per year. A key factor in this success has been the development of a high coercivity-low noise magnetic medium composed of a Co alloy such as CoCrTa, CoPtCr and CoNiPt. To achieve areal densities greater than 1 Gb/in2, media development has diverged with emphasis on the development of quaternary alloys of Co and on research into new thin film media materials such as CoSm and Barium Ferrite. This paper will review these topics and highlight recent work on sputtered longitudinal Barium Ferrite thin films.
